Harry Potter and the Impossible Escape
by BeCarefulWhoYouPretendToBe
Summary: 'Hermione? Where are we' The trio finds themselves trapped in a dangerous and magical labyrinth of underground rooms, with a new physical of psychological challenge behind each door. With nothing to depend on but each other their friendship is tested like never before as they desperately search for an exit before they all run out of time.


**Just an idea I had floating around. I don't write slash so everybody is just friends. Also takes place during Christmas of fifth year but without the snake attack so just a normal Christmas. **

**Enjoy!**

Christmas day was drawing to a close and the lights in the windows of the Burrow where twinkling sleepily, casting festive shadows on the backs of the three 15 year olds wandering slowly away from the celebrations. Harry shivered, pulling his cloak closer to him and smiling to himself. He had just had perhaps the very best day of his life. Every single one of the Weasley's had come home for the holidays (with the exception of Percy but that was no big loss) and Mrs. Weasley had even agreed, although grudgingly, to host Sirius over Christmas. Though Harry was greatly enjoying the company and merriment it had eventually become a bit crowded so when Hermione had suggested a walk after dinner he had readily agreed. His shoes were now soaked through with snow and he was freezing in his thin coat but he had a warm ball of happiness inside of him that he was sure nothing less than Voldemort himself could ruin.

Hermione nudged him. "Harry? Are you listening to us?"

Harry glanced up, shaking snow out of his bangs. "Hmm? Yeah… What's up?"

Hermione eyed him skeptically but repeated herself anyways. "We were just wondering whether you had heard from your aunt and uncle over the holidays? They normally write you at Christmas don't they?"

While it was true that the Dursley's normally wrote him at Christmas, if only to send him a paperclip, Harry felt sure that they would not feel he was worth the stamp this year. "Course not. They think I'm a dangerous nutter who tried to kill their son and is marked for death don't they?"

"Well to be fair mate." Ron kicked a twig out of his way as they crossed from the Weasley's Quidditch orchard into the forest beyond before turning to walk backwards and grin at the pair of them. "You are a dangerous nutter. And you are marked for death."

Harry grinned back but Hermione stiffened and glared at him. "That isn't funny Ron."

Harry and Ron shared a look, rolling their eyes in exasperation. "Aw come on Hermione, lighten up, it's Christmas. Besides, Harry doesn't mind do you?" Before Harry could tell him that he did not in fact mind Ron had tripped over a rock and fallen backwards with a yell, disappearing from view.

"RON!" Harry and Hermione ran forwards, peering through the dim light at where they had last seen their friend. As they reached the place where he had last been Hermione shrieked and fell forwards, seizing Harry round the middle and dragging him down with her through the solid forest floor and into darkness.

()()()()()()()()()()

Harry hit the ground with a grunt and quickly rolled to his knees, feeling around for his wand which he had dropped when he landed. After a brief second of panic he felt his numb fingers close around it and breathed a sigh of relief. This was short lived however as he realised that he could not use magic, or risk expulsion. His heart, which had momentarily slowed immediately doubled in speed. He felt incredibly vulnerable, sitting there in the complete darkness with no way of defending himself and no way of knowing who or what was in that darkness with him.

"Harry?" Ron's voice sounded from across the room, sounding very scared. "Hermione? Is that you?"

"It's us." Harry started feeling around for Hermione in the dark, trying to find her arm. "Are you okay Ron?"

"Fine. You?"

Harry considered that. His back felt bruised from the harsh landing and his arm was sore from Hermione falling on it but he was otherwise unharmed. "Fine. Hermione? What about you?"

"Fine." Hermione's voice came from right next to Harry's ear and he jumped, then wheeled around and grabbed her arm, feeling down to her hand which he held tightly, drawing reassurance from her that he was not alone in the horrifying, all-consuming darkness. Together they made their way towards Ron's voice, colliding into him halfway across the room and the three of them huddled together, stealing warmth.

"Lum-"

"Ron, _no_!" Hermione interrupted. "We can't use magic outside of school, you know that!"

"We can in case of emergency!" Ron argued indignantly. "And I for one think that this qualifies!"

"Well then at least let me do it." There was a rustling noise as Hermione pulled her wand from her coat pocket. "If I get caught doing illegal magic I get off with a warning. If either of you two gets caught you'll be kicked out of school, especially Harry. _Lumos._" Her wand tip lit and suddenly the room was full of dim light revealing his friend's pale, dirty faces. Harry slowly rose to his feet, releasing Hermione's hand and turning in a slow circle. They were in a small cement room, more of a box really for it had a low cement ceiling through which they had apparently just fallen. Harry stood on his toes and pushed against it; it seemed solid. On either side of the room was an identical wooden door, one painted red; the other blue.

"What do you reckon?" Ron and Hermione had also gotten to their feet to take in their new surroundings. He looked undeniably frightened but he glared bravely at the nearest door, as though daring it to challenge him to a duel.

Hermione on the other hand seemed thoughtful. She reached out a hand and stroked the paint on the red door. "It's almost like…but no. No it couldn't be."

Ron glared at her in exasperation. "Hermione you know we hate it when you do that. Clearly you know exactly where we are so spit it out." He moved to stand next to her.

But Hermione was shaking her head, looked sure of herself. "No it really _couldn't_ be. I have no idea where we are. What do we do?"

They both looked at Harry who shrugged. "Maybe we ought to try a door?"

"No!" Hermione looked aghast. "What if there's something horrible behind it?"

"And what if it's an exit?" Harry challenged, raising an eyebrow. "Look Hermione, the chances of anyone finding us anytime soon are almost non-existent. If this is our only chance then I say we take it."

Hermione looked ready to argue but Ron talked over her. "So uh… which one?"

"Go go Gryffindor." Harry smiled grimly and reach for the red door handle, apprehension growing in the pit of his stomach.

()()()()()

"Has anybody seen Harry?" Everyone looked up as Sirius burst into the living room, looking anxious and dragging Remus behind him.

"Not since Dinner." Mrs. Weasley rose slowly to her feet, pulling her husband up with her. "Why, can't you find him? Did you ask Ron and Hermione?"

"We can't find them either!"

"They went for a walk." The twins piped up from where they were sitting in front of the fire, discretely trying to work on WWW products without attracting their mother's attention. "We heard them at dinner."

"Yeah but Freddie… that was ages ago, they should be back by now."

Sirius spun around, transforming into Padfoot and racing out the door, the inhabitants of the burrow trailing along in his wake.

()()()()()

Harry hit the water with a splash and was instantly submerged in icy cold darkness. Heart beating and fingers numbing he kicked towards the surface, breaking it with a gasp and looking around wildly. He was in a great body of freezing cold water (most likely a lake judging by the lack of waves). The glistening surface spread as far as he could see in all directions. Ron and Hermione had surfaced on either side of him, coughing the water out of their lungs and shivering violently.

Harry almost jumped out of his skin an icy hand closed around his upper arm but it was only Ron. He spun around to face him, treading water. Ron locked eyes with him looking as terrified as Harry felt. "Where the bloody hell are we?"

Harry shrugged and sank beneath the surface. He kicked off his shoes which were affected his ability to successfully tread water and kicked back towards the surface, Ron and Hermione's hands meeting him halfway and pulling him up. He coughed and spat water out of his mouth before slowly turning to meet Hermione's anxious gaze. "Are you alright Harry?"

"I'm fine." Hermione continued to look skeptical so he hurried to elaborate. "I'm just not the strongest swimmer. The Dursley's weren't exactly too concern about my possible death by drowning. They never took me to the pool with them anyways so it was never really an essential skill for me." He shrugged and gave her a half smile.

"But Harry-"

"Just drop it okay Hermione?"

"But Harry what about the second task of the triwizard tournament last year? You were in the water for over an hour and you made it out of that alright. _And _you pulled Ron and that French girl out with you. "

"In the second task I was swimming around the bottom of the lake not trying to stay on the surface. And I had the gillyweed so I couldn't drown. Besides I barely made it back up the grindilows had me remember?" Harry kicked his feet and suddenly realised he couldn't feel them. "Focus, Hermione. What the hell is this place? You'd think that the Weasley family would have at some point noticed the massive body of water under their orchard."

Hermione bit her lip thoughtfully. "I'm not so sure that we are under the Burrow anymore. There is just no way could this possibly exit under your house Ron, it would have sunk decades ago. I have a theory but I'll explain it later when we have solid ground and a warming spell."

"Well that sounds lovely." Ron piped up sarcastically, his lips turning blue. "And just how do you suggest that we get out of here? Even if we could swim that far in any direction what guarantee do we have that land even _exists _here?"

Harry, who hadn't thought of that, felt his anxiety level skyrocket. Although adrenaline was most likely the only thing keeping him from drowning so at that point anxiety may have been a plus.

"There has to be an exit somewhere." Harry could practically hear the whirring of Hermione's brain. "Otherwise what's the point of creating any of this?"

"Painfully slow death method?" Ron mumbled skeptically.

"Don't be ridiculous. Well clearly we aren't supposed to try and swim to an exit."

"How on earth do you figure that?" Ron's voice was barely audible over the chattering of three sets of teeth.

"Because that is exactly what we would be expected to do. I'll bet that it's a trick. People swim for days without finding anything, eventually dying of hypothermia or falling asleep and drowning." Hermione told him, her tone clearly stating that she found it painfully obvious. She looked down into the icy black water. "But maybe there's another way."

Harry followed her gaze. "No! Hermione that's mad."

"It might be the only way Harry."

Ron looked back and forth between the two of them. "What does she want to do?"

Harry spun around to face him, accidently splashing freezing water all over Ron's face. "She wants to swim directly down and just _hope _that there is an exit down there."

Ron paled impossibly further. "Hermione that's insane! What if we get down there and there's no way out and we can't get back to the surface? What if there isn't anything down there at all and we just keep swimming until we die?"

Hermione shook her head confidently. "No there must be. But just in case we can use bubblehead charms so that we don't run out of oxygen. I learned how to do it last year just in case we ever had to do anything like that second task again." She reached into her pocket and froze. "I can't find my wand!"

"What?"

"My wand! It's not in my pocket. Do you think it could have fallen out?"

Harry shoved his hand into his pocket, searching desperately. "Mine's gone too!"

"And mine! They can't have all fallen out could they?"

Hermione sighed in relief. "No it must be part of the magic. We'll probably get them back once we get out of here."

Harry eyed her suspiciously. Hermione had that looked that she often got that meant she knew exactly what was happening and had not yet seen fit to share it with them.

Hermione brushed her hair impatiently out of her face. "I had plenty of swimming lessons as a kid. I'll swim down a little and look for an exit. Ron, you stay here with Harry." She took a deep breath and before either of them could stop her she dove beneath the surface and disappeared. Thirty very tense seconds later, in which Ron's lips turned consistently bluer and Harry was finding it harder and harder to keep his head above the water, she resurface.

They both bombarded her with questions but she held up a hand, catching her breath. Once she could breath again she beamed at them. "I found an old ship anchor. I think it must be a portkey because there isn't anything else down there at all. It's on a rock about thirty feet down. It's a little far but I think we can make it!"

Harry's heart sank. _Thirty feet? _But Hermione was still beaming at him, her eyes exhausted but shinning and he found himself saying: "Let's do it."

They dove. Harry struggled down wards through the pressing and increasingly freezing darkness. Soon both Ron and Hermione had pulled ahead of him, their dim outlines moving further and further away. Doubt filled Harry oxygen deprived mind. What if he couldn't make it? What if it wasn't a portkey at all but just a rusty old ship anchor? Just when he was losing hope, as well as feeling in his legs he felt a grip close around his wrist. He jerked his head up to see Hermione smiling as him reassuringly. He smiled tiredly at her and she pulled on his wrist, dragging him behind her. Harry's lungs were about to burst from lack of oxygen and his vision was getting blurry around the edges but now he could see Ron in front of them, gesturing franticly at them with one hand hovering over a giant silver anchor. His eyes slid closed but he could dimly feel Hermione pressing his fingers onto a cold metal surface. Then a familiar if unpleasant jerk in his navel and an intense spinning feeling and he could breath again.

Harry rolled onto his back, gasping in huge breaths of air and shivering so hard he felt there was a real risk of his skeleton shaking apart. After a full minute he sat up, finding himself in what appeared to be the exact same room they had started out in. Although their lack of progress was discouraging it was such a drastic improvement over their previous location that Harry was incredibly glad to see it.

"Harry are you alright?" He turned to smile tiredly at Hermione.

"Yeah. And um… thanks. You know, about before.

She smiled reassuringly at him. "Not a problem. Now everybody in this room has been pulled unconscious out of a lake."

Harry blushed but Ron laughed loudly, clearly just as relieved as Harry to be back on solid ground. He shivered violently and Hermione pulled out her wand (which had reappeared in her pocket) and dried them all off with a quick warming charm. Harry pulled his hoody tighter around himself, relishing the soft warm feel of the material. Then he remember that Hermione owed them some answers. "Hey Hermione?"

"Hmm?"

"Where the hell _are _we?"

She sighed, running a hand through her recently dried hair. "From what I read in _wizarding histories of the nineteenth century _and my own educated guesses? Freydell Wizarding Penitentiary."

Harry had never heard of it although thanks to his muggle upbringing this was unsurprising. "Where?"

Ron answered him, understanding slowly dawning on his face. "An old wizarding prison. Older then Azkaban even. But I thought it was destroyed?"

Hermione shook her head. "Not destroyed, just hidden. It was too impressive a piece of magic for it to be destroyed, even if it was possible. We must have stumbled on one of the entrances. I've read about those, they've popped up over the years all over the world. I can't believe we just happened to find one they're incredibly rare." There was so much awe in her voice that Harry and Ron stared at her incredulously. She hurried to explain. "I mean as a person this is horrifying. But as a student it's _fascinating_. It's widely considered the most effective prison system in history. It was in effect for centuries. Freydell was doubly effective because it took a two sided approach to punishment. The red doors lead to a physical challenge, the blue doors to a psychological one."

Harry stored that information away in his brain. "If it was so effective then why was is shut down?"

"Because a couple of inmates…" Hermione trailed off, the desperation on her face being slowly replaced by hope. "Escaped."

Harry's heart rose. "Then so will we."

"Harry…"

"Hermione if there is one thing I have learned over our many years of impromptu adventure it's that if it can be done, we _will _do it."

Ron nodded in agreement, rising to his feet and holding a hand out to Hermione. "Come on. Let's escape an old, brutal, barely escapable prison. And let's do it quickly because school restarts next week."

Hermione laughed shakily and took his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. Harry stood to meet them and together they moved to stand in front of the blue door. They glanced at each other uncertainty. Ron nudged him. "Want to do the honors?"

Harry sighed but reached out and pulled the door open, bracing himself for anything. But all he saw was an almost identical cement room except for that there was no door on the other wall and there was a glowing silver pensive in the middle of the room.

As soon as all three of them the door slammed shut behind them, vanishing from view and leaving them trapped. They moved to stand side by side before the pensive, eyeing it uncertainly.

Obviously they were supposed to enter the pensive but when Harry put his hand in his pocket he found that it was once again empty. "How are we supposed to use the pensive without our-" A silver stream of the pensive substance shot out, attaching itself firmly to Harry's left temple. Ron and Hermione grabbed him, presumably to try and pull him away but as soon as they touched him the scenery changed as they were all dragged into the pensive.

_A small dark haired baby lay on the floor of a pristine living room, blinking startlingly green eyes up at his much larger, rounder cousin. Dudley dug his chubby fingers hard into Harry's ribs, making the smaller baby's face crumple, tears pooling in his eyes as he let out an unhappy wail. _

The scene changed.

_A four year old Harry potter sat knelt up in the backseat of a family car, craning his neck to stare out the back window. Loneliness was painted all over his face as he watched the happy families at the beach whose parking lot he had been parked in. Thirty feet in front of him were the Dursley's, sharing a picnic lunch and looking tanned and happy, if uptight and fat. Harry fought to keep the tears from streaming down his face as his heart panged with longing. _

The scene changed.

_Five year old Harry had his nose pressed against the vent on the door of his closet, watching the Dursley's open their presents. The scent of Christmas cookies filled the air and festive lights twinkled at him. He turned away from the happy scene, sinking down to sit on the floor of his closet. He closed his eyes and tried again without success to remember his first Christmas with his own family. _

The scene changed.

_Six year old Harry stood in front of the bathroom mirror, looking skinnier and more exhausted than usual. As a punishment for somehow regrowing a full head of hair overnight aunt Petunia had given him nothing but baby carrots to eat in nearly two weeks. He pulled up his shirt with a sigh and started to count his ribs. _

The scene changed.

_Little Harry Potter collapsed backwards on his cot, looking very pale with bright fever spots high on his cheekbones. He curled onto his side, wrapping his arms around his stomach. He coughed violently, his breath rattling in his chest and shaking his tiny frame. When his uncle hammered on his closet door and yelled for him to shut up so they could hear the television he turned his face into his pillow and groaned. _

The scene changed.

_The sad little dark haired boy knelt on his cot, drawing a birthday cake in the dust lining the wall above his bed. He added ten candles, quietly singing himself happy birthday under his breath. He finished his song and blew out the 'candles', wishing once again for a family. _

The pensive through them back into the tiny cement room. Harry took a step back, staring at his friends who stared right back at him, lost for words. Then Hermione stepped forwards and wrapped him in a hug.

()()()()()

"Over here!" The search party ran over to where Sirius was crouched, having tracked his godson's scent to a patch of the forest floor behind a rock at the edge of the orchard.

"Their scent ends here."

Professor Dumbledore (who they had contacted immediately after discovering the kids were missing) strode over and crouched beside Sirius, running his hand over the leaves and dirt. "Ah yes, this place has known magic. A very old and powerful magic."

"What is it Albus?" came up behind them, his arm around his wife and his children and Remus trailing in his wake.

"I believe that Harry, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley may have stumbled upon one of the entrances to Freydell." There were gasps but they were soon silenced by the others and everybody strained to listen. "Arthur may I suggest that we return to your house to discuss this further and Sirius that you send a patronus to your godson? I'm sure they are very frightened."

There were nods of agreement and the party set off back across the orchard towards the distant lights of the Burrow.

()()()()()

Harry tensed for a second then relaxed and put an arm around her. "Hermione, this really isn't that big off a deal."

"But Harry… they…you…. And at _Christmas_… and when you were _ill._"

Harry pulled away and looked at her. "Hermione, its fine. I'm fine. That was years ago. I have a family now."

Hermione looked ready to protest but just then a ball of light appeared in front of Ron, transforming into a dog and speaking in Sirius's voice: "We_ know where you are. Stay together. Stay safe. We will find a way to get you out." _ The patronus faded from existence leaving the three of them standing together in the semi darkness, pale and tired and hungry and cold but with one shared thought: they couldn't wait around for the adults to rescue them. If they were going to survive then they would have to find a way to escape.

**Any good? Is it worth continuing? I'll only continue it if it gets a good response so if you like it let me know.**


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